The David Brower Center stands as a monument to the environmental movement by fostering the environmental community at large and incubating some of the most impactful new environmental organizations in the country. The Brower Center’s staff approached Rootid with a challenge: build a brand that truly represents the thought leadership with which the organization had become synonymous, while reinventing the site infrastructure to provide its community what it needed.

6 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Development Company

Hiring a web development firm to design and build a website can be daunting—time consuming and resource intensive.

Finding a development company to work with can feel a like finding a mechanic you can trust to work on your car. Here are six questions that will give you confidence to start the process today.

1. Where is the site going to be hosted?

Your site has to live somewhere, some organizations handle hosting themselves, but most don’t. I would argue that virtually none should. Hosting a website sounds trivial at first, but it can have a lot of hidden complexities.

You don’t need to have a host lined up before hiring a firm, but you should ask teams you’re interviewing for a web development project which host they recommend. Experienced teams will have one or more that they enjoy working with, and will steer you away from places they’ve had problems with in the past.

Some questions to consider when choosing a host are:

How are backups handled?Start with the assumption that worst case scenarios will happen frequently. If your whole site were to be erased, how much data loss is acceptable, and what is the minimum you need for a satisfactory recovery?

Do you want to be able to review changes privately before making them live on your site?Some hosts have a built in workflow that includes testing and development sites that are automatically configured. This makes it easy to review a site in a place that isn’t as public as your main domain name. Any development shop worth anything will set this up on their end to show you the site before making it live, but having this built into your hosting means you can try out changes yourself before making them live and/or your development site can survive past a shop moving on to other jobs.

How much traffic do you expect your site to get and can the web host handle it?Some organizations will get a handful of hits per month and virtually any web host will be adequate for their site, others will get a constant stream of hits and will need a robust web server that is configured to handle that volume of traffic. Generally speaking, if you’re getting more than a couple hundred hits a month, a shared server (GoDaddy, BlueHost, HostGator…) is off the table and should not be considered.

Hosting CostOften we see clients looking for the cheapest hosting option, but we tend to warn them away from the cheapest. Cheap often comes with downsides: security vulnerabilities, performance issues and the additional costs associated with lack of developer tools. Usually paying a little extra for a better server and better tool sets will actually save you in the long-run. Think strategically. Cheap has its costs.

2. How are website software updates handled?

A content management system (CMS) is a software package. Just like your phone, or computer, it needs to be updated. These updates can have implications for ongoing costs to the site.

Security vulnerabilities will be found and your site can be hacked into if they aren’t fixed. If you’re thinking “That doesn’t matter to me, there’s nothing mission-critical on my website” then you’re wrong. Your website forms a part of your official identity, a hacker could alter the content of your site, or cause your site to redirect to material that could hurt your reputation.

If you have a technical person on staff you may be able to handle these updates internally, if not, then you need to have a plan for site updates. Some firms will offer maintenance contracts to handle site updates, some will tell you that you’re on your own. Either way, before you commit to working with a shop, make sure you know how you’re going to handle your site updates.

3. Who is responsible for writing your website’s content - internal or contractor?

Web projects can take a lot of time. Depending on the size that means weeks to months, maybe much longer.

While your developers are working on the designs and code for your site you should be working on the content. We advise clients to start writing content as soon as the sitemap is in place.

Other time sinks in the content process are:

Finding good photography. Sometimes you need to generate more.

Passing content to management and higher-ups to approve writing.

Bottom line: Do not leave this until the last minute.

4. Who is your point of contact with the web development shop? Who is their point of contact in your organization?

Things will work easier if both parties have one person to serve as a point of contact for the other. If possible, these two people should be passing most of the communications to each other. This is not to say that this is the only direct contact happening, and it shouldn’t be. There will be times that an in-house designer will need to pass on design notes to the designer working on the project, or people in your organization testing the site will need to pass on bug reports to the developer.

But what you want to avoid is having people on your end communicating directly with the developer asking for changes to features, or even entirely new features. That can lead to absolute chaos, as people in your organization may not know what the scope of your contract with the developer is, and now could be asking them to change or build something costly.

I personally have gotten requests from people working for our clients that would have added thousands of dollars to the budget of a project. Anytime I get requests for alterations or additions from someone who isn’t the point person, I make sure to ask the point person about it and make sure it’s ok, but not everyone is going to be so careful.

5. What tools does this shop use to facilitate communications?

Big projects, no matter what kind, can be messy. They take a lot of time, involve a lot of people, and iterations of design, development, and testing.

Keeping your communications organized will be critical. Working with a firm that has addressed this problem and can tell you what tools they use is very important. If you ask about tools they use to facilitate communications and you hear, "Email" in the response, that’s a red flag.

At the very least you should have access to a task management system, hopefully one that can double as an issue tracker. Ideally, some kind of project-centric instant messaging service should be in there as well, but that isn’t as essential.

Generally, you want to avoid situations where communications can be lost, or multiple threads of conversations can happen about the same topic.

If I email the designer about a header image, and the designer emails you about it, that’s now two threads of communication about a single topic. The designer isn’t a super-human, that person needs to remember which decisions have been made about that header image. They may remember something got said in 'some email,' but can’t remember to who or when.

With a task management system you have a Header Image task, and everyone just comments there about the header image. Everyone sees everything being said about it, so you all remain on the same page.

6. What are you trying to accomplish with your website?

You need a website, but why?

What do you want out of it? A good web development shop will ask you this question, a great one will help you answer it by interviewing stakeholders, customers/constituents, and board members. But in all reality, you should have a handle on this before you even sit down with a third party.

A good place to start is by finishing this sentence: “When someone visits our website I want them to _____”.

We often suggest to clients to think about the top 3 things you want site visitors to see and do and focus on those. A lot of organizations can end up with unfocused sites—huge things that try to be and do everything. Or they end up with iceberg sites, where there’s a vast amount of content hidden beneath a deceptively sparse homepage. Think about it this way: Do you want people to be signing up for your email list? Then highlight the signup form so you see it immediately when the page loads.

Do you have a large media library you’re trying to have accessed? Don’t hide the only link to it in a dropdown menu, highlight it multiple times on the homepage with some kind of featured item area, and maybe a slider that highlights categories. Looking for donations? Make it impossible to miss the donate button and highlight what donations are being used for with your site.

A good firm will help you think strategically about your web development goals and flesh out a strong plan of action. Ultimately, you should have a handle on your goals before talking to anyone. No one knows your organization like you do, so getting this legwork done before hiring someone else will mean that you’re going to get more for your money in the long run.

Need Help? Contact Rootid.

Of course, if you need additional help, or have more questions. Contact us!

Law enforcement agencies are acquiring and using surveillance technology, often without the knowledge of local government and the communities they represent. The ACLU Washington affilit wanted to build a website where visitors could learn about the technologies and the issues surveillance technologies present, and get recommendations on how to protect their civil liberties.

American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature. Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® campaign.

Created by the ACLU of California, The Privacy & Free Speech Primer draws more than 100 case studies to develop specific recommendations that companies of all sizes can implement, including an expanded free speech section addressing issues related to online moderation and censorship. The tools in this guide can help companies make the smart, proactive decisions necessary to avoid problems, protect users, and grow their businesses.

The purpose of TeenSource.org, an online resource developed by the California Family Health Council, is to improve the health and well being of young people in CA by providing non-judgmental, accurate, and reliable sexual and reproductive health information and resources.

Designing a website can be a very complicated process with a lot of stages depending on the size of the site you are building. But with a user-centered strategy, grounded in best practices, you will be set-up for success.

In this session, we will guide you through the strategies we use and the basic steps needed for a clean, user-friendly website that is based in user research and design best practices.What we'll cover:

Research

Defining Audiences (based on real people you know directly or indirectly)

That's where data from Google Analytics and Facebook play an important role.

In addition to filling in the gaps, data can also confirm findings from other research methods. You may even be surprised by some of the trends and behaviors that pop-up in your data.

If you’re only looking at pageviews, traffic growth, and Facebook Page Likes, you’re missing the full story.

We've all been there... looking at Google Analytics and Facebook reports can be overwhelming.

So much data! How do you know what matters?

This guide is here to help you get started sorting through what matters and how to use the data effectively.

By setting up just a few simple reports we can dig deep into data that will help you learn more about your donors, volunteers, members and other target audiences, so that your communications efforts can be more effective.

Use Segments To Compare Behavior and Find Trends

Google Analytics segments are a way to look at discrete user groups based on demographics, type of device, location, behavior and a lot more.

Why is this important?

Take a look at this example of our client’s data.

This data shows that over 865 conversions took place on their site from traffic that originated on Facebook.

In comparison, traffic that originated on Twitter converted just 12 times!

Clearly, their ideal audience is spending time on Facebook, not Twitter. This is critical information when making campaign decisions, right?

How do you use segments?

At the top of almost every report, you’ll see an area where you can add segments. Choose the ones you want to compare, then click apply.

Segments may be one of the most important features that you can use when doing research.

It's important to realize that this process is about looking for trends and anomalies. Not all reports are going to give you a nugget of information. But, keep digging and you can find incredible insights.

Take some time to explore the different segments that are available. You can also make custom segments.

Some other popular segments that Google Analytics provides out of the box are:

Organic Traffic

Paid Traffic

Social Traffic

Referral Traffic

Convertering Traffic

Non-convertering Traffic

Return Visitors

New Visitors

By Device

Pro Tip: Segment Traffic By Conversions

When researching your target users, you should be looking for users that have completed a transaction or taken an action on your website to engage with you.

This could be a donation, volunteer sign-up, newsletter sign-up, or any other action you want users to take on your site.

Hacks to Find Donor and Volunteer Demographics

Compare the campaign strategy for communicating with a 60+ year old versus a 30 year old. Different channels. Different messages. Different asks.

Demographic information lays the bedrock for much of what we do in communications.

You may already have a pretty good grasp on your donor and volunteer demographics based on other research that you’ve done. But are you getting the full picture?

How do you know your intuition is accurate?

Use Facebook Audience Insights to Perform Donor Research

Facebook Insights is a little-known tool in Facebook that will provide all kinds of amazing information about people that like your Facebook page or have interests in your mission.

In addition to demographic information like age, marital status, and education, Facebook Audience Insights will tell you about their additional interests so you can start to put together a full picture of your personas.

It can also help you identify potential strategic partnerships.

Go to your Facebook Ads Manager. You can find the Audience Insights in the main menu under Plan.

Once on the page, add your page name into field “People Connected to” field.

This will bring up your audience information. In addition to age, gender, marital status and education level, you can find out location information and additional page likes.

We like to focus on additional Page Likes, as this can tell you a lot of additional information about their interests.

Use Google Analytics Demographics Information

Google Analytics has also developed an interface for analyzing demographic information of users visiting your website.

Some information, like location, has always been available.

However, more recently, Google has given us information on things like age, gender and interests.

Google does not have access to this data on all users, so it is not nearly as accurate as Facebook. Regardless, Google Analytics can be a nice compliment to that information.

Location data focuses your campaign approach. One of the advantages of digital marketing is that you can fish in a targeted area of the ocean, rather than casting a wide net to see where you might find fish.

Location data allows you to identify new locations where you might expand your marketing efforts and find new constituents. It also allows you to see how campaigns in particular locations might be lifting your overall performance (think radio PSA, billboard, newspaper ad or article).

Don't forget that all of this is in context of your work.

Perhaps you're wondering if your target audience is urban or rural.

Perhaps you're interested in knowing what regions you need to target for an acquisition campaign.

What are some creative ways you can use this data in your marketing efforts?

Using Event Tracking To Understand Behavior

Google Analytics events are ways to track behavior on your site that may not be business critical, but do show user engagement or behavior trends.

In particular, it can help you understand how users are engaging with content topics and how users are using your user interface.

Here are some common events that we setup on client sites:

Page Scroll Tracking. Using a tool like Google Tag Manager you can setup events to fire based on how far down the page users scroll.

This can help you learn more about how users are navigating your landing page, or you can use this to find out which blog posts are getting the most engagement. This could help you adjust content strategy and the topics of your content.

Video Watching. Events can also be fired when users what a video. This would give you insights into which videos are most popular, and the topics that resonate most with your users.

Track UI calls to action. For example, let’s say that you have a banner image on your homepage with a button that has a main call to action.

You can track the number of times that users click on that button versus using the main navigation to get to a location on your site. You could do the same thing for sidebar call to action buttons, etc. Again, these are not main conversions, but it would inform you how users are navigating your site.

Using Traffic Channel Analysis to Research Your Target Audience

How is traffic coming to your website? More importantly, which traffic is most engaged and converting on your website?

You can see an overview of traffic by channel under Acquisition -> Overview in Google Analytics.

Use Traffic Channel Segments to Dig Deeper

Instead of using the overview report, I prefer to use segments and compare behaviors.

Some questions that are helpful to ask yourself:

Which channels drive the most conversions?

Which channels drive the most engagement with content?

Does a particular channel drive most of the conversions for one goal? Meaning do volunteer sign-ups come from Twitter, but donations come from Facebook? If so, this can lead to two distinct personas.

Are there clear demographic patterns based on channel?

Use Organic Search and CPC Campaigns to Learn More

When you connect Search Console and your Google Grants account, Google Analytics will provide really powerful information about what users were searching before they landed on your site.

Why does this matter?

Search queries can provide a really clear view into a user’s motivations and concerns.

If you can connect traffic to search queries and behaviors, then this can help you model your target audience's motivations and concerns.

If you have connected these services to your Google Analytics account, go to Acquisition -> Search Console -> Queries to see organic search queries.

Create your personas with a group of colleagues. Each individual in your organization has a unique experience with your personas, therefore a unique perspective. Bring those experiences together to build a 360 degree view of who your persona is.

Spend a minimum of 20-30 minutes per persona. It’s worth taking time to get the details right. Don’t assume anything, and make sure your assumptions are backed up by data and survey results.

Think outside the box. Don’t just hone in on donors. Think about strategic partners, press, clients, board members and others.

Contra Costa College is a community college in the San Francisco Bay Area serving a diverse and thriving student body. Through a full rebrand and redesign process, Rootid was able to update their visual language and marketing assets to transform their approach and drastically increase their student applications.

Contra Costa College was ripe for a brand revitalization and with a wide variety of transferable education institution experience, we were ready to support their endeavor.